One of things I like about this yoga practice is the structure that it provides, a part of which is the opening chant.

I like doing the opening chant…I like the way the words roll out my tongue despite not knowing exactly what each word means…I like my teacher’s deep, booming voice…I like it when the shala is full and everyone joins the chant, I can feel each sprit reverberating in mine…and I like the silence that follows it…it seems like the teachers of old are with us…

A curious thing about ashtanga yoga is how I would be able to do a pose all of a sudden when I had known that pose to be difficult and “unattainable”. It would put a smile on my face then followed by a quizzical look “How did I do that?”

I guess the consistent doing, the patience in “pretending” to do a pose and just breathing through it works magic into the practice. But then again, it could be just that in the Universe, there is a right time and the right place for an event to happen…

My colleagues and I have been working on a project to institute a graduate program for physical therapy. With all the red tape, the set backs and other humps, it has taken us 6 years from conception to today! There had been discussions about “abandoning” the project. I guess the impact it will have in our discipline outweighs our individual desires to let it go. But nevertheless, we “kept on doing” and we kept our breath steady. Now, it is on its way to be get its formal stamp of approval.

There’s a smile on my face…and a quizzical look “How did that happen?!”